10 Trends to Define Marketing in 2014 - Moving From Creepy to Credible

My second interview was with Judith Hemmel, SourceLink’s Vice President of Customer Intelligence. With 20 years of Direct Marketing Experience, Judith leads SourceLink’s Customer Intelligence team, and assists clients in the planning and execution of analytics and strategy. Reach Judith at jhemmel@sourcelink.com

“At the end of the day, the results are about the nuances in the data”

In speaking with Judith, the core trends for 2014 will be about using data in new ways. Not just the analytics and the tools, but the use of the data itself. The volume of business data worldwide, across all companies, doubles every 1.2 years, according to estimates, but what does that data REALLY mean?

The key to marketing in 2014 will be finding creative ways to use the data. There is so much data that marketers coined the term “Big Data” to refer to this mass of unstructured data, but with Big Data comes the “Creepy” factor. Marketers that succeed in 2014 will “move from creepy to credible.” How’s that for a tagline?

The first step in moving from creepy to credible will making sure every touchpoint doesn’t beg the question “how do they know this about me?” Harnessing Big Data in 2014 will focus on illuminating behaviors in the sea of information generated from transactional (think Wal-Mart and Amazon), social and search data, amongst others. Successfully mining big data will illuminate consumers’ needs and behaviors. When done well, marketers will be able to identify key “micro-segments” and design optimal communications plans to reach them effectively in 2014.

Consumer Controlled Marketing

Plain and simple, consumers are now in control of how they are marketed to. How many of you DVR your favorite show or sports game and then WATCH the commercials? I would wager very few. Success in marketing will revolve around understanding that consumers are reached when they want to be reached. Data is crucial in acting upon this realization. Marketers must start reaching the consumer “how I want, where I want and when I want,” and consumers will look at the marketing message as a choice, as “I have chosen to engage with you.”

For mobile marketing moving forward, permission is the crucial choice made by the consumer to engage with a brand. There will be more ways than ever in 2014 for consumers to exclude you if you have lost relevance to them. Cultivating an environment where consumers are eager to give that permission will be directly interlinked with any plan to engage with personal electronics for marketing.

The Role of Customer Intelligence in 2014

Customer Intelligence teams’ role in 2014 will not be creating the communications, but rather enabling them, facilitating the creation of micro-segments within your data. The CRM mantra has always been “I don’t have to be talking to you one-to-one, I just need you to feel like I am.” The most successful marketers will use Big Data to become even better about making this personal connection and will start cultivating the permission to have these interactions – starting today.